VEVO REVENUE UP 30%

Vevo’s revenues grew 30% in 2017 to about $650m, The Financial Times reported. The company attributed much of that growth to advertisers abandoning YouTube.

Vevo, which grossed $500m in 2016, reported that millions of dollars in ad campaigns were yanked from YouTube after discovering that their spots appeared alongside extremist or offensive content.

The FT, which has the story behind a paywall, noted that Vevo, like YouTube, continues to struggle to come up with ways to get users to pay for content.

Vevo’s CEO Erik Huggers is leaving the company after overseeing the website produce original content such as acoustic videos by Lorde and Demi Lovato and overhauling its apps. His plans for subscriptions have been scrapped.

The company, owned by Universal Music, Sony Music, Google and Abu Dhabi Media, does not usually disclose financial results but told the FT that it broke even in 2017 and will be profitable early this year.